The International Association of Flight & Critical Care Paramedics (IAFCCP) is proud to announce that Graham Pierce of PHI Air Medical, LLC is the recipient of the 2012 Tim Hynes Award.

Mr. Pierce is the 14th recipient of this prestigious award. The official presentation will be made during the Critical Care Transport Medicine Conference (CCTMC) in Nashville, Tennessee on April 3, 2012.

Mr. Pierce, originally from Dublin, Ireland came to the US and started his EMS career as a paramedic in the Chicago suburbs. Moving to California, he started flying as a paramedic for the AirMed Team at Doctor’s Hospital in Modesto and later became the Program Director, being one of the first paramedic flight program directors in the country. An exceptional leader, Mr. Pierce’s contributions to the flight paramedic profession are perhaps most widely felt as thedriving force in the creation of the certification exam that would validate the body of knowledge of the flight paramedic.

In the latter half of the 1990’s, the development of the Certified Flight Paramedic (FP-C®) exam was driven by Mr. Pierce’s vision, commitment and leadership to the flight paramedic profession. With the former National Flight Paramedics Association (now the IAFCCP) Board of Directors working to support him, Graham led the fund raising effort to secure sufficient capital to move forward with a role delineation study and contracted with Applied Measurement Professionals (AMP) to provide the psychometric services necessary to validate the exam. In

October of 2000 in Salt Lake City, the beta version of the exam was ready and a first trial of paramedic attendees at the Air Medical Transport Conference (AMTC) took the exam and became the first Certified Flight Paramedics in the world. With the exam a reality, Mr. Pierce recognized the need to establish a separate board to administer the exam and maintain the integrity of the process.

With that, the Board for Critical Care Transport Paramedics (BCCTPC®) was formed with Mr. Pierce as the Chairman of the Board. It is with Mr. Pierce's leadership that the FP-C® exam has prospered both in the US and around the world. In 2009, it was his vision and determination that created the Certified Critical Care Paramedic (CCP-C®) for paramedics providing critical care transport not in a flight environment. Both the FP-C® and the CCP-C® exams have become the industry standard to recognize that a paramedic has achieved mastery of a specific body of knowledge that is beyond the scope of practice of the normal paramedic.

Mr. Pierce is the heart and soul of the Certified Flight Paramedic. While his contributions to the flight and critical care paramedic community go far beyond his work with the BCCTPC®, it is this work that the committee felt made him the deserving recipient of this year’s award.

The Tim Hynes Award recognizes exemplary abilities in leadership, education and safety within the paramedic profession. Every year, the IAFCCP selects an exceptional paramedic who has demonstrated leadership and paramedic professionalism. View previous winners of the Tim Hynes Award here.